Dr. Dean Hristov

This experiential paper is written to provoke debate amongst deanly colleagues around the world-our location is the 130 business schools in the UK (and the 3500 plus in the world!) about how to ‘flip’ the academic model of their business schools. We make a case for this flipping by revisiting Henry Mintzberg's thesis presented in ‘Managers not MBA's in its tenth anniversary year. Ten years on we argue the case for the ‘flip’ is stronger than ever yet our progress toward it disappointing. The criticism of business schools is ever persistent and the argument for their irrelevancy seems to be strengthening. Our paper seeks to argue that much of business school practice and pedagogy is still rooted in content rather than context, where priority is given to academic knowledge in favour of practice intelligence. The ‘flip’ as we define it shifts the emphasis to the latter and helps restore business schools to the status of being relevant to business. Within this context, we provide key features of the flipped business school model for curriculum design and delivery and introduce key enablers of the flip, and we argue that deans are well placed to take this agenda forward.

Within an increasingly networked environment and recent transitions in the landscape of funding for destination management organisations (DMOs) and destinations, pooling knowledge and resources may well be seen as a prerequisite to ensuring the long-term sustainability of reshaped, yet financially constrained DMOs facing severe challenges to deliver value to destinations, visitors and member organisations. Distributed Leadership (DL) is a recent paradigm gaining momentum in destination research as a promising response to these challenges. Building on the scarce literature on DL in a DMO context, this paper provides a policy-makers’ perspective into the place of DL in reshaped DMOs and DMOs undergoing transformation and explores current challenges and opportunities to the enactment and practice of DL. The underpinned investigation used in-depth, semi-structured interviews with policy-makers from VisitEngland following an interview agenda based on the DMO Leadership Cycle. Policy-makers within VisitEngland saw a multitude of opportunities for DMOs with regards to DL, but equally, they emphasised challenges acting as barriers to realising the potential benefits of introducing a DL model to DMOs as a response to uncertainty in the funding landscape.

The purpose of this paper is to enrich the current conceptualisation of graduate employability and employment through the lens of policy, academia and practice in UK Higher Education (HE). We examine the UK policy context that is shaping graduate employability and employment debates before enriching this conceptualisation through a discussion of key themes in the academic literature. We then undertake a comparative study across a sample of 35 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK to identify and discuss key employability practice areas shaping their graduate employability and employment provision. We do so by drawing on institutional employability data that is already available in the public domain. In mapping key themes in the literature against institutional employability practice, we conclude that the employer-university interaction theme in the literature is not sufficiently addressed in UK HE practice. Drawing on the evidence from our comparative study, we provide a discussion on four directions worthy of further exploration by universities as they shape their institutional responses to the lack of employer-university interaction.

The purpose of this paper is to position and appraise the University of Bedfordshire Business School's initiative-'Practice Weeks' – as a potentially innovative response to the current criticisms facing Management Education (ME). Criticisms of ME, we argue, are founded on the 'irrelevancy' debate, which is conceptualised in the first half of our literature review. The second part of the literature review examines Association of Business Schools (ABS) reports and reviews how business schools are responding to these critiques, reliant primarily on the tried and tested experiential learning models to do so. Building on these, 'Practice Weeks' are then presented as a case example from the University of Bedfordshire Business School (UBBS) as an innovative response to surfaced criticisms. Data is drawn from interviews carried out with students and employers who have participated in UBBS Practice Weeks, supported by quantitative insights from student survey questionnaires. Findings evidence that Practice Weeks have the potential to go further than existing experiential learning models to deliver practice-based education to business school students, whilst also capturing an effective and efficient approach to supporting business and community organisations in meeting their objectives. Abstract The purpose of this paper is to position and appraise the University of Bedfordshire Business School's initiative-'Practice Weeks' – as a potentially innovative response to the current criticisms facing Management Education (ME). Criticisms of ME, we argue, are founded on the 'irrelevancy' debate, which is conceptualised in the first half of our literature review. The second part of the literature review examines Association of Business Schools (ABS) reports and reviews how business schools are responding to these critiques, reliant primarily on the tried and tested experiential learning models to do so. Building on these, 'Practice Weeks' are then presented as a case example from the University of Bedfordshire Business School (UBBS) as an innovative response to surfaced criticisms. Data is drawn from interviews carried out with students and employers who have participated in UBBS Practice Weeks, supported by quantitative insights from student survey questionnaires. Findings evidence that Practice Weeks have the potential to go further than existing experiential learning models to deliver practice-based education to business school students, whilst also capturing an effective and efficient approach to supporting business and community organisations in meeting their objectives.

This paper aims to serve as an introduction to a rather under-researched field. It aims to provide a conceptual definition of destination management organisations (DMOs) serving as leadership networks in destinations drawing on what is to be called the DMO Leadership Cycle – a guiding framework integrating the perspectives of management, governance and leadership to influence destination development trajectories.

SUMMARY 'This paper investigates collaborative management and planning among public organisations involved in urban heritage tourism. An exploratory case study has been applied, capturing urban heritage tourism development in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The findings demonstrate a shared desire for further collaboration between the key public bodies involved, with limited existing and previous collaboration, beyond work that is the result of existing hierarchies. Collaboration is at an early stage, and many looked to the Local Authority to provide leadership in driving new initiatives. The private sector has a limited but increasing role in this. There are differing views on the focus of heritage tourism development – some suggesting a regional, others a city focus.'

The extant literature on networks in tourism management research has traditionally acknowledged destinations as the primary unit of analysis. This paper takes an alternative perspective and positions Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) at the forefront of today's tourism management research agenda. Whilst providing a relatively structured approach to generating enquiry, network research vis-à-vis Social Network Analysis (SNA) in DMOs is often surrounded by serious impediments. Embedded in the network literature, this conceptual article aims to provide a practitioner perspective on addressing the obstacles to undertaking network studies in DMO organisations. A simple, three-step methodological framework for investigating DMOs as inter-organisational networks of member organisations is proposed in response to complexities in network research. The rationale behind introducing such framework lies in the opportunity to trigger discussions and encourage further academic contributions embedded in both theory and practice. Academic and practitioner contributions are likely to yield insights into the importance of network methodologies applied to DMO organisations.

Within a shifting political and economic context, reshaped Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) in England are expected to deliver well beyond traditional activities related to marketing and promotion of destinations. Yet, such delivery processes are to happen in light of the increasingly resource-constrained operational environment, where the public purse is no longer available to destinations and destination organisations. Th is commentary paper provides a discussion on recent transitions in the landscape of destination marketing and management in England, where processes of organisational transformation, the introduction of reshaped DMOs and the public-to-private transition in supporting tourism have been infl uenced by both the 2010 coalition government's neo-liberal agenda and the global economic downturn disrupting Europe's travel and tourism sector and beyond. Th e discussion debates the existence of key considerations, which should be taken into account by reshaped DMOs due to their implications for destination management practice. Transitions in the landscape of destination marketing and management in England have indeed contributed to the rise of complex, multifaceted issues and mirror a great deal of uncertainty alongside the introduction and run up of the deemed to be controversial new destination management and marketing structures in England, and as such, they arguably deserve further attention.

The objective of this paper is to explore a recently emerging approach to destination management, which is present in the UK, and influenced by the changing context of operation in the current financially-straightened times. England is brought into focus-the primary recipient of tourism activity in the UK, facing significant challenges addressing issues of financial sustainability, being the result of global economic trends and shifting political priorities on a regional level. The latter had a substantial impact on the recent changes of funding for tourism, which led to the abolishment of some, and transformation of other public tourism organisations. This study then sheds a light on the process of restructuring tourism governance in England. A review of tourism policy papers and industry insights form the basis of analysis and seek to enhance the current knowledge of the practices and processes, which define and drive partnerships in contemporary DMOs in the destination of investigation. Arguably then, a thorough understanding of the changing context, in which local tourism bodies operate, is of key importance to the start-up, development and competitiveness of refocused destination management bodies. In this sense, the paper concludes by emphasising on current challenges and prospective opportunities that the new local destination management arrangements may face.

This paper attempts to explore the emerging concept of the visitor economy, by linking it to recent changes in tourism governance on a destination level, influenced by complex global and regional politico-economic factors. A regional outlook reflecting on England as an exemplar of a shifting destination management is introduced and provides the basis of investigation. Particular attention is given to the new model of destination management in England and its prospective role in realising the benefits of the emerging visitor economy. Secondary data sources in the form of destination management strategies and industry reports have been explored and informed the discussion of the two evolving concepts – destination management on a local level and the multifaceted visitor economy. Outcomes of the analysis suggest that further enquiry into the blurred visitor economy concept is imperative, particularly in times of organisational restructuring, changing destination management priorities and increased competition.

This paper investigates the current degree of collaboration and partnerships in marketing and promotion bounded by municipal bodies and other public organisations, involved in urban heritage tourism. As the majority of published research projects accentuate on private and mixed stakeholder alliances, this study is important in order to uncover the scope of collaborative activity among public sector organisations. The research approach adopted in this project includes the application of a case study in the heritage town of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The findings provide evidence that public organisations need to realise the benefits of mutual marketing and promotion activities created in a local, regional and Internet-based context. The roles of the local airport, urban events, as well as the Internet should be recognised and used as a catalyst of tourism demand.

This regional spotlight paper debates novel approaches to the way urban destination management is being undertaken by DMOs against a dynamic operational context. The rationale behind is the scarce literature on change in the domain of destination management, particularly in today's post-austerity era. In times when DMOs are forced into revisiting their modus operandi, entering partnerships with organisations representing the wider destination network and having an interest in destination development, could be the way forward. This multi-phase qualitative study is drawing on both primary and secondary data sources and involved policy analysis, group observations, and semi-structured interviews with executive and other senior personnel of case-specific organisations. Findings provide evidence that the wider destination management network engaging proactively in developing the visitor economy is crucial to the future sustainability of DMOs across England. The focus is brought to exploring and exploiting alternative alliance opportunities in an attempt to fill in the funding gap left by the public. Building on the limited empirical evidence on the topic to date, outcomes of this study shed light on such cross-organisational alliances. The latter may be of practical relevance to visitor-oriented, urban DMOs seeking to acquire additional funding in post-recession times.

Within a new political and economic context, Destination Management Organizations. (DMOs) across England are expected to facilitate a more holistic and inclusive approach to destination management and provide core leadership functions, rather than being solely responsible for the marketing and development of destinations. Destination Management Plans (DMPs) are an expression of a government-mandated, current policy-driven approach to guiding the work of private-led DMOs. These DMOs are being challenged to achieve a more sustainable level of performance in times of decreasing state funding. Building on the scarce literature surrounding this new approach to managing destinations, this paper looks into how an emerging
destination has approached the development of such a plan in practice. The paper examines the case of Milton Keynes and its local destination management structure, the collaborative approach to policy development and the resultant DMP. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of the key aims of the plan and their relevance to comparable emerging destinations, which are developing DMPs.

The extant literature on networks in tourism management research has traditionally acknowledged destinations as the primary unit of analysis. This paper takes an alternative perspective and positions Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) at the forefront of today's tourism management research agenda. Whilst providing a relatively structured approach to generating enquiry, network research vis-à-vis Social Network Analysis (SNA) in DMOs is often surrounded by serious impediments. Embedded in the network literature, this conceptual article aims to provide a practitioner perspective on addressing the obstacles to undertaking network studies in DMO organisations. A simple, three-step methodological framework for investigating DMOs as inter-organisational networks of member organisations is proposed in response to complexities in network research. The rationale behind introducing such framework lies in the opportunity to trigger discussions and encourage further academic contributions embedded in both theory and practice. Academic and practitioner contributions are likely to yield insights into the importance of network methodologies applied to DMO organisations.